Clocks provide school exam inspiration!

November 14, 2018 Creative, News, Personnel, Public

Earlier in the year Bruntcliffe Academy, Leeds, approached Potts of Leeds, part of the Smith of Derby group, to provide clock parts for students to use in their upcoming exam. Leeds based clockmaker Mike Tomlinson was delighted to help the school, supplying various parts for students to use in the exams. Following this we had a very kind letter from Richard Hall, the photography teacher at the school:

“Each year, just after Christmas, the exam board publishes the final project theme for Britain’s GCSE Art, Design and Photography students. 16-year-old students the length and breadth of the country wait with bated breath to find out the name of the topic they’ll need to explore. Last year the topic was… ‘Machines’.

Suddenly the nation’s teachers are under pressure to gather materials and items linked to the new topic, to give their students the earliest possible start in the three-month window allowed for the completion of the new project.

Luckily, I knew Mike and I knew he worked with ‘machines’ day in day out, so I contacted him straight away… and he didn’t let me down, delivering a bag of old clock parts within the week! My sixty Year 11 students at Bruntcliffe Academy in South Leeds immediately got to work exploring the parts and in no time at all had developed their drawings and photographs into all manner of creative artworks.

Some of the work the students developed based on the provided clock parts.

I made the students aware of the generosity of Potts of Leeds in helping us at such short notice and I also flagged up how important it is that they consider the design, manufacturing and engineering industries as potential employment opportunities for the future.

The final artworks were exhibited at the school last summer and the grades the students achieved were very high; 15% above the average national pass rate. Many thanks to Potts of Leeds for helping us achieve this!”

Well done to all those involved and congratulations for the fantastic exam results, its something we’re certainly proud to have played a small part in!

About the author

Sam Welton: